A famous tale about giants is one about the building of Lund’s Cathedral. It was first written down in 1654 by Jens Lauritzen Wolf, but before that it had been told from generation to generation.
At the beginning of the 12th century, a monk named Saint Laurentius lived in Lund. Laurentius wanted to build a grand cathedral, but he had no workforce to help him. In the forrest close to the town lived a giant and his family. The giant told Laurentius that he would build the cathedral for him – but if the monk couldn’t guess his name before the build was done, he would pay him with the sun and moon, or with his own eyes. Laurentius agreed.
But the giant was very fast, and when he was almost done, Laurentius still hadn’t figured out his name. Worried, he took a walk in the forrest to clear his head. He was about to give up and sat down on a large hill to think. Then he heard, from inside the hill, a child cry and a woman soothing it by saying:
”Dont cry child, your father Finn will soon return with the sun and the moon or the eyes of the monk for you to play with”
Laurentius hurried back to the cathedral where the giant was almost done, and called to him:
”Insert the last stone, Finn!”
The giant became furious that Laurentius had found out his name, and ran inside to the crypt, grabbing one of the pillars, to try to demolish the church he just built. But when he closed his arms around the pillar, God intervened and turned him into stone.
A while later, the giantess and her child came looking for Finn. When she found him, in her fury she grabbad another pillar – and was turned to stone as well.
And there they still stand, to this day.
Sources:
Egerkrans, Johan. ”Nordiska väsen”
Wall, Tora. ”Folktrons väsen”